I showed him the entries about Amber, or Paige. I was still confused. She sounded like she had a spirit I could admire. Jack read through those parts and even managed a laugh or two past his tears.
“He says he’s going to marry her,” he whispered. I leaned my head on my husband’s shoulder and gently stroked his arm as he planted a kiss on my forehead. “You’re right. He’s not alone.”
I looked up into Jack’s eyes and then flipped to the last page in the journal. It was a message directly addressing both Jack and Billy.
To Jack and or Billy,
This is probably insane. I honestly don’t know why I even think you might find this in this random mall…that’s not true. I’ve come to realize that there are things beyond our understanding. Call them spirits, angels, or fates, but something guided me to Paige and last night I had the strangest dream.
I dreamt about this man that I met for like all of thirty seconds, in the refugee camp where I lost mom and Owen. His wife is one of our group, but even so, I’m not sure why I’d dream about him, or why he told me I should write to you and leave this journal here.
I always planned on keeping it with me. I wanted to share my story with future generations, so on the off chance that the man from my dream was real and you do find this, bring it with you.
I hope that Dad and you guys are alright, that you’ve faired better than the other half of our family. At least you got paired with the survivalist. Of all of us I can say that I didn’t think I’d be the one to make it through the apocalypse.
Jack laughed. “What’s so funny?”
“Seth was always so scrawny, he worked hard to put on muscle…which he could manage a little bit of, but he was absolutely incapable of putting any meat on his body.” I chuckled as Jack continued to read.
But I’m here and I’m not alone. We’re a strong group and as I hope you’ve read; we’ve survived a lot. But this world can no longer just be about survival. There needs to be some hope for humanity to be able to live again. Paige taught me that. And I promised her I’d find that for her.
I wish I could say it was me that found her the hope I so desperately wanted to give her. But it wasn’t. It was Doc. The man who became like a father to me. Who guided me through the worst time in my life. And his last deed in this world was to give us the opportunity to live again.
He remembered this place a colleague of his had. It’s not far from here, but I don’t want to give you too much detail because I know that other people could come across this journal, and we’ve run into unsavoury survivors more times than we cared to, and I will not lose our sanctuary to their kind.
But if it’s you Jack, or Billy, then I hope you remember that first family vacation we took. The one right after our parents got married. When they took us to that large lake. The resort town we pretended to hate but secretly thought was awesome. If you remember it, and that place where I nearly crashed that thing…go there. I’ve left you another clue there. Follow the instructions and I promise I’ll find you.
Your brother, Seth.
“Do you know what he’s talking about?” I asked Jack as he finished reading. He nodded. “We should go there.”
“What about your family?” A tear slid down my cheek and Jack quickly brushed it away. “This is not something the two of us can decide alone.”
He was right. There were six of us. We needed to gather and make a plan. I already knew what I wanted to do, but I wasn’t so sure I could convince April. We’d already been through so much and I knew she believed now, that at least someone from our family survived.
We sat in a circle on our cots, that Billy had found at an old camping store in the mall. Billy poured over the journal as the rest of us sat silently, slowly picking at the canned ravioli Jack had heated up for our dinner.
“Is it really your brother?” Kaia asked.
Billy nodded. He didn’t cry like Jack had, but I could tell he was overwhelmed. April placed her hand on Billy’s, giving him comfort just like I had given Jack. “We should go find him,” April spoke softly as a few silent tears drifted down her face.
“What about your family?” he asked her, taking her hands in his. It was strange how these two had gone from not being able to stand each other, to being the comfort each one needed.
“We don’t know how to find them. We do know how to find Seth.” She forced the tears away with her hands and rubbed her belly. “You said this resort town isn’t too far from here.
“It will probably only take us three days of walking,” Jack offered.
April nodded. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m exhausted, and so is this little one, and I for one want to be somewhere safe when it comes to giving birth, so I say we follow this new path. I mean what are the chances that we would just randomly find this journal anyway? You found it under a blanket?” she questioned me, and I nodded in affirmation. “Well, there you have it. It’s destiny. I think we should follow destiny to where we’re supposed to go. And whose to say this wasn’t what Dad meant all along, Summer? He implied we had family. Well, you married Jack and I married Billy, so that makes Seth family.” I smiled and nodded in agreement.
We decided that we’d stay in the mall for a couple of days to let ourselves rest and give my feet as chance to heal. Jack and Billy spent their time gathering any supplies we could take with us. I got a brand-new pair of high-end athletic shoes that fit like a glove, and we had more than enough food we were able to pack along with us, to last us another two weeks. If we needed it to. We really hoped it wouldn’t take that long to find Seth and his group. Maybe we were foolish to have so much hope, given everything we’d been through, but there was just this feeling, we got from reading Seth’s words, that we couldn’t ignore.
When we finally said goodbye to the mall, we all had fresh clothes, new winter gear and sleeping bags that would keep us warm on the road over the next few days. We had no way to tell what would happen to us when we finally made it to the resort town. Jack said the next clue would be at a go-kart track, where Seth had nearly crashed a go-kart into the solid wall, because he mistook the gas pedal for the break.
When we finally reached the resort town, it was only a few hours until sundown. And there were obvious signs of hive activity. The hope we felt over the past week, was fading fast, along with what remained of our daylight.
We’d come this far, and we would push on, until we couldn’t push any further. I was really beginning to worry about April. She still had a couple of months to go in her pregnancy, but she was beginning to have unnerving symptoms. Braxton Hick’s…at least according to the pregnancy book I’d found in the one library, were supposed to be normal, but she had them so often, and normally after a long day of walking. And then there was her feet. They were nearly always swollen. She needed Billy’s help at the end of each evening to remove her shoes, and he’d perform a lymphatic massage to drain the fluid, but he was worried that she might be developing pre-eclampsia. With no way to test her blood pressure, we really had no way to know.
All we could hope was that we could rest soon and find the necessary supplies to truly monitor April soon. I couldn’t believe that she’d gone through all this only to lose another baby. No, the world couldn’t be that cruel. We’d found so much. We found Jack’s long-lost brother. Things had to work out. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
It would have been wiser to split up and assess the town, but there really wasn’t the time for that. Placing all our eggs in the proverbial basket, we headed to the rundown go-kart track. I forced April to sit down with the kids while we checked the tracks to look for the clue.
Thankfully, the track wasn’t too big, but it was a mess. It had probably been a lot of fun back in the day. Now it was just a bundle of rusting metal and broken track. Jack insisted I stay away from the rusted metal of the karts. I rolled my eyes at him but decided not to argue as I limped along. The leg was getting worse and if we didn’t find a place to set up shop
for at least a while it might really hinder all the progress I’d made.
While Jack and Billy looked around the actual carts, I checked out the cracked track. There were several chunks taken out of the asphalt, but I saw no clues. I must have walked around the track at least three times before a glimpse of the setting sun, shone off something into my eyes. Shielding myself from the blinding light, I moved towards the glass bottle that was hidden beneath the cracked part of the track. It must have gotten bumped because it looked like it had once been peeking out of the track a little better, but now was just barely visible.
Crouching down, I just barely managed to squeeze my hand through the gap and pull out the glass bottle, that had a note in it.
“I found it,” I shouted out excitedly, catching both Billy and Jack’s attention as they rushed over to me.
I handed the bottle to Billy as soon as he got to me. He quickly uncorked it as Jack grabbed my hand, causing a sharp stinging sensation, to radiate up. “You cut yourself,” he said panicked.
I looked down and sure enough I’d peeled a good chunk of skin off my hand. “It’s not that bad,” I assured him. “We’ll clean it when we find a safe place to stay.”
“Does Seth give us a clue as to where we can find that?” Jack asked his brother.
“A houseboat on the water. Chipped blue painted door with daisies on it. Apparently, they’ve set it up so it’s secure with food…and he’ll be able to find us,” Billy pointed towards Lake Michigan. I couldn’t see anything that looked remotely like a houseboat.
“We need to get moving if we’re going to find a lake worthy vessel to carry us across the lake before the sunsets,” I responded, pointing towards the setting sun.
We quickly gathered the others and then began our mad dash towards the lakes’ edge in search of such a vessel. Similar, to what we’d experienced with Michelle’s hive, a lot of the boats looked to be intentionally damaged and by the beasts, judging by the claw marks.
Eventually we managed to find a boat that we were able to plug up the leak with enough ducts tape in order to at least be able to use buckets to remove what water did make it through our terrible patch job.
We’d barely made it out onto the water when the first whaling screeches assaulted our ears. April handed out ear plugs to everyone. This was much different than the last time. Even though we were on a rickety boat, in the middle of a giant lake, in the freezing cold, we didn’t feel the same sense of danger as the last time.
These beasts were acting on pure instinct, unlike Michelle’s group, that had been driven by her psychotic need for revenge. Charlie even fell asleep on April’s lap as Kaia, and I took turns removing the slow-moving water from our boat. Jack and Billy did there best to search for landmarks left in Seth’s cryptic note, to find the houseboat.
I don’t know how the two of them managed to paddle without any breaks for more than two hours, after pushing so hard during our journey that day. Maybe it was that final punch of adrenaline, knowing that safety and hope was just around the corner.
April used a flashlight and binoculars to search the surrounding water and terrain and we were just passing the three-hour mark, when a small houseboat came into view. It looked more like a cottage than a house, but it would do…until Seth found us. And seeing the houseboat drifting into view, I knew he’d find us.
When we docked next to the houseboat, which had been anchored at all four points, so as to not drift, Jack and Billy insisted that we wait in our water-logged boat, just a little longer, until they could make sure the place was safe.
A few minutes later and they gave the all-clear. Billy helped April out of the boat and the two of them nearly tipped into the water due to her being so off balance, and Charlie causing her swollen legs to fall asleep.
The front door had the cute little painted flowers that had been described by Seth’s note, though they were well faded, and the paint had clearly been chipped at over time. It probably had been quite a nice vacation home once upon a time. At least it had four walls and a roof, and though the air inside was stale, and the place was freezing, we were all grateful for the sanctuary.
The place had one bedroom with a fairly decent bed. Most of the furniture was covered in plastic, so it was still in good condition. I helped Jack uncover the furniture, while Billy got a fire going in the fireplace that went from the living space into the bedroom. I insisted on Billy and April taking the bedroom. April, who normally would have argued the point, made no move to.
It wasn’t even five minutes after they left for the bedroom that I heard April’s gentle snores drifting past the door. I smiled as the image of Billy performing the nightly massage while April snored away, filled my mind.
Jack insisted on me taking the couch, while he and the kids rolled out their mats on the floor. I felt a little guilty, but I was truthfully too tired to let the guilt overwhelm me. The couch was the softest thing I’d slept on in awhile.
When the morning sun shone through the window, I realized it was the first full night’s sleep any of us had in months. Jack was still softly breathing in front of the now burned-out fire and Kaia and Charlie were snuggled close together as they normally did these days. I wondered what their futures would be like now that we were so close to finding a truly safe place. They still hadn’t had the chance to grieve their grandmother’s death. We’d been too busy running on the road. Charlie would let his feelings flow through in moments of extreme frustration, but Kaia had been so closed off. I hoped with the chance to grieve and heal, she could become the happy young woman I’d met a year ago.
Wow, it had been a year. A year since my life had been irrevocably changed. My injury had led me to Jack, and April to Billy and now they were going to have a baby. I could honestly say that my life was better for what had happened. Even April was happier than she’d been in years. She still felt a little guilty at times, moving on from Andy, but she was letting more of that guilt go every day. Andy would have been so happy for her.
“You look lost in thought,” Billy whispered beside the couch. I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Sorry about that,” he chuckled as he took a slow sip of what smelt like coffee. “Want some? The cupboard is full of all sorts of glorious things, but I couldn’t pass up the coffee.”
“I’m good. Never been a fan and I’m honestly wide awake,” I responded back quietly.
Billy motioned for me to join him at the small two-seater table just beside the gally kitchen. He set down his cup of coffee on the table as he rummaged through the cupboard. He brought back a mug and a container will all sorts of herbal teas as well as… “We have hot chocolate,” I exclaimed excitedly.
Billy laughed as he went to an already boiled kettle of water and poured it over the chocolatey powder in my mug. “I thought that might reel you in.” I smiled back.
“What other stuff is in the cupboards?”
“There’s a ton of what looks like freshly made preserves. I had some apple jam on some homemade cracker thingies, and it was quite good. You want some?”
“Maybe after my hot chocolate.” I took a slow sip, careful not to burn my tongue. “How’s April?”
“Sleeping like a log…which is why I need the coffee,” he raised his mug with a smile.
“I’m glad…that she’s sleeping, not that you couldn’t sleep.” Billy just shrugged his shoulders. Even he seemed more relaxed. Billy had always been wound so tight. Now, he reminded me a lot of Jack. Maybe it was an older sibling thing. “How do you think Seth is going to know we’re here.”
“I honestly have no clue. But these supplies seem to be freshly stocked up. There are clothes in the bedroom in Jack’s and my size…sorry I don’t think our younger brother was expecting us to have success with the ladies.” I nearly choked on my hot chocolate. “Me it’s kind of expected, I would have thought he’d have more faith in Jack though.”
“Were you and Seth close?”
“No and yes. We got a long well and he was a brother to me, bu
t Jack and him, were like best friends. They’re only a year a part.”
“I’m sorry about your younger brother,” I whispered as I looked out the front window to the slowly moving water.
“I can’t even remember what he looked like…I think that’s the hardest thing about this. We lose those images of the ones we loved and its like we lose them all over again.” I knew what that was like. Jack had restored my phone so I could look at the images of my family again, but I’d been forced to leave my phone behind in the village, not that I would have had a way to power it. With no pictures, the images slowly faded away, until it was like the person never existed at all. I had managed to hold onto the image of Noah for the last several months, but even that was beginning to fade.
Our conversation lulled as we both looked out onto the water. It was so calm out here. The hot chocolate warmed me through, but I knew the others had to be freezing. I was just headed over to the fireplace when Billy said he’d get it for me. I decided to take a stroll around the veranda of the tiny houseboat, with my hot chocolate in hand, and a cozy blanket wrapped around me.
We could barely see the shoreline from where we were. I never knew a lake could be so big, but then I’d never had the opportunity to explore any of the great lakes. By the time I was born the world had changed so much. Some people still enjoyed recreational travel, but my family avoided it, preferring to stay safe within our own community.
I could see the draw of such a place but didn’t know how anyone could just go back to living a normal life after experiencing such serenity. Maybe it was just the fact that I’d been on the road now for months, but this felt like heaven, or as close as I could imagine it would be.
I rounded the other side of the cabin when I heard soft footsteps coming up from behind me. “You’re awake.” I smiled as I wrapped my blanketed arms around Jack.
“You’re warm,” he replied as he pulled me in closer to his freezing body.
Seeking Hope: Book 2 in the Seeking Saga Page 35